Philosophy quotes — page 16

Live with your century, but do not be its creature.

Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.

That whereby humans differ from birds and beasts is slight; ordinary people discard it, the noble person preserves it.

Wealth and honor cannot corrupt him, poverty and lowliness cannot move him, might and force cannot bend him—this is called a great man.

Seeing the good, be earnest to preserve it in yourself; seeing the not-good, be anxious to examine yourself.

Those who wish to cultivate themselves first rectify the mind; those who wish to rectify the mind first make the intention sincere.

What Heaven mandates is called nature; following nature is called the Way; cultivating the Way is called teaching.

Not leaning is called the Mean; not changing is called Constancy. The Mean is the right Way of the world; Constancy is its settled principle.

Knowing is the beginning of acting; acting is the completion of knowing.

Let one not regard the faults of others, nor what others have done or left undone; let one regard rather one's own deeds, done and undone.

You yourselves must strive; the Buddhas only point the way.

Treating pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat as the same…

The Great Way has no gate; there are a thousand paths. Once you pass this checkpoint, you walk alone between heaven and earth.

A day without work is a day without food.

This mind is luminous—what more is there to say?

It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.

Truth does not contradict truth; rather it agrees with it and bears witness to it.

One must never do injustice in any way.

Justice is somehow a kind of virtue.

The beginning is the most important part of any work.

States of character arise out of like activities.

Best for a human being is to live life with as much cheerfulness and as little distress as possible.

I am looking for a human being.

We are not born for ourselves alone.